104. Headdress 16 x 65 cm. Restored. From the Mansfield collection, 1904 to 1907. Keaka (Cameroun). 1604-1677. Two large and two small birds heads. Wood, carved with poker work, painted in black, white and reddish brown. Eyes set with glass.

Olitiaun of Cameroun, West Africa

Sighted and documented by no less authority than famed hunter and cryptozoologist Ivan Sanderson, the Olitiau is the West African equivalent of the East African Kongamato and the Indonesian Ahool.

Described as a giant bat with a wingspan of between 10 and 15 feet, this goliath of the order of cheroptera is reportedly most active in the twilight hours.

Sanderson and his hunting companion Gerald Russell were literally strafed by an Olitiau as the two were shooting smaller bats along a stream in the Assumbo Mountains of Cameroon in 1932.

According to Sanderson, "It's lower jaw hung down and... I could have counted the huge white teeth if I had had the time - they were a good two inches long... the whole animal was coal black... and did not appear to be hairy."

The native porters were so excited upon hearing of the encounter that they dropped everything and set out in hot pursuit. Some have speculated that the Olitiau was (and is) a surviving species of Pterodactyl.

However, Sanderson is convinced that the creature was "the Granddaddy of all bats". No specimen of this creature is known to have been collected.